-technics Also -techny, -technical, and -technic.

A technology or skill.

[Greek tekhnē, art, craft.]

Terms in -technics may be regarded as based on technics, technical terms, details, and methods. It and its compounds, though in form plural, are treated as singular.

Examples are geotechnics (Greek gē, earth), the branch of civil engineering concerned with the study and modification of soil and rocks; pyrotechnics (Greek pur, fire), the art and technology of making fireworks; electrotechnics, the application of electricity in technology; zootechnics (Greek zōion, animal), the art of rearing animals.

The ending -techny has the same meaning as -technics, but its compounds are less common: pyrotechny, zootechny.

Related adjectives are formed either in -technical (geotechnical, electrotechnical), or less commonly in -technic (geotechnic, biotechnic). A polytechnic, however, is a British institution of higher education, now only an historical term.

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